baha’i children’s class ideas.

learning concepts
Cleanliness is an important part of baha’i life.
One thing we must do to keep clean is to wash our hands, face and feet every day.
When we grow up (reach the age of 15), Baha’u'llah asks us to wash our hands and our face before saying our obligatory prayers every day.

readings/prayers for study
Be ye the very essence of cleanliness amongst mankind.
(Baha’u'lláh, The Kitáb-i-Aqdas)

…[I]n all conditions, cleanliness and sanctity, purity and delicacy exalt humanity…
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Tablets of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Abbas)

artistic activity
mirror flowers: children cut out five-petalled flowers from foam sheets, and use adhesive to stick the flowers onto a bathroom mirror. (similar to fun foam frames)
drawings: children divide a sheet of paper into two halves. On one half, they draw a person who exemplifies the Bahá’í standard of cleanliness (combed hair, clean face, neat and clean clothes, etc); on the other, they draw the same person, but who lacks cleanliness (dirty, smelly, smudged, dishevelled, etc.) Children could draw in ink (ball-point pen) first and then use water-based paint over ink, and could thus be taught how to use paints cleanly.

reference
"It hath been enjoined upon you to… bathe yourselves each week in water that covereth your bodies, and to clean yourselves with whatsoever ye have formerly employed…. Immerse yourselves in clean water; it is not permissible to bathe yourselves in water that hath already been used. … If the bather, instead of entering the water, wash himself by pouring it upon his body, it shall be better for him and shall absolve him of the need for bodily immersion." (Bahá’u'lláh, The Kitáb-i-Aqdas, pages 57-58)

"…Although bodily cleanliness is a physical thing, it hath, nevertheless, a powerful influence on the life of the spirit…. The purport is that physical cleanliness doth also exert its effect upon the human soul." (`Abdu’l-Bahá, Selections from the Writings of `Abdu’l-Bahá, pages 146-147)

Ablutions are specifically associated with certain prayers. They must precede the offering of the three Obligatory Prayers, the daily recitation of ‘Alláh-u-Abhá’ ninety-five times…

The prescribed ablutions consist of washing the hands and the face in preparation for prayer. In the case of the medium Obligatory Prayer, this is accompanied by the recitation of certain verses.

That ablutions have a significance beyond washing may be seen from the fact that even should one have bathed oneself immediately before reciting the Obligatory Prayer, it would still be necessary to perform ablutions.
(this above stuff is from Wikipedia – Ablutions)

experience
November 22, 2008: 1.5 hours, 4 children, average ages 9 and 5. the lesson itself was very short today. we had a quick conversation about cleanliness, pointing out several different ways of keeping clean (showers, baths, wearing clean clothes, brushing teeth, washing hands, trimming nails, and so on), and then looked at one of the quotes above: "…Although bodily cleanliness is a physical thing, it hath, nevertheless, a powerful influence on the life of the spirit." – ‘Abdu’l-Baha.  We set a 16×16 grid on the floor and used it to play a game sort of like hopscotch – words of the quote were placed in order throughout the grid and the children had to hop on each of the squares in order to complete the quote. After that, we continued with the masks we were working on last week.  I was going to encourage them to observe cleanliness during that activity, but we still got paint and glitter all over, because my mind was everywhere trying to keep everything else going.  You know, one kid needs help cutting while the next one wants more paint and the next one says he’s starving and wants a snack. And so on. Overall, a short lesson, the delivery wasn’t perfect, but at least we made some effort to examine a quote – which we’ve been lacking so far this year.

November 4, 2006: 2 hours, 8(?) children, average age 6-7. (…) 

March 11, 2006: 2 hours, 5 children, average age 6-7. during the fast. worked out all right. The children could relate to the topic. We managed to convey the idea that Bahá’u'lláh asks us to wash our face, hands and feet each day. This will be a useful reminder for the children in future classes. Many of them seem to have learned basic hygiene at school and/or at home. The craft was a good idea but was difficult to execute without a proper plan. note to self: refine this craft! the children liked sticking the flowers onto a mirror and seeing their faces reflected inside. when they saw an example they giggled and were quite impressed. didn’t mention the connection with the Fast, but there’s still another week for that.

• explain the purpose of the craft – what is this going to be for?
• have an example of the craft already done, so that the kids know what they’re working towards.
• write out the steps beforehand, so you know how to explain it to the kids.